Few sites in El Paso have been as iconic as the red- and white-striped Asarco tower.

And few neighborhoods in El Paso are as fabled as Smeltertown, which existed from 1887 to 1999.

At its height in the early 20th century, more than 5,000 people lived and worked in Smeltertown, which had a school, cemetery, church and stores.

Smeltertown also was called La Esmelda by its residents, who built the community on the eastern banks of the Rio Grande in the 1890s.

The first Catholic church in Smeltertown, built in 1892 by the Jesuits, was Santa Rosalia y San José.

The parishioners then built a rectory for the priest and Santa Rosalia became a home base for the Jesuits, who from there served mission churches upriver in Canutillo, Chamberino and La Union.

On July 14, 1899, a larger church named San José del Rio which could seat 2,000 parishioners was completed.

In 1924, Monsignor Lourdes F. Costa became the priest at San José del Rio Parish and would continue to serve Catholics in Smeltertown for more than 20 years.

After San José del Rio Church was destroyed by a fire in 1946, a new church was built and dedicated in 1948 at a new location across the road.

The parish was central to the spiritual and social life of Smeltertown families, who forged a unique Mexican-American border culture through their participation in church activities.

The children in Smeltertown often learned the basics in private religious schools called escuelas particulares which met in private homes and at the parish hall.

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Especially in the early years, this often was the only education many children received.

Although the main purpose of these schools was to prepare children for First Holy Communion, at the escuelas particulares children also learned math, reading and writing in Spanish, and enough English to be able to enter the school system.

The church, along with a local YMCA and vocational school, served as one of the primary social centers for Smeltertown residents.

Various religious congregations of women provided catechetical and educational services to families in Smeltertown including two orders from Mexico who fled to El Paso during the revolution and established convents in Sunset Heights -- the Daughters of the Most Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Religious of Jesus and Mary.

Most important, however, were the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Victory from Indiana, who founded a convent and catechist center in Smeltertown in 1935 called the Cristo Rey Mission.

There, they conducted catechism classes for more than 700 children each year and trained altar servers, lay catechists and choir members.

One of the most important legacies of the Catholic Church in Smeltertown is the magnificent Mt. Cristo Rey that overlooks three states and two countries and that was made possible by Monsignor Costa and the parishioners at San José del Rio Church. Born in Spain, Monsignor Costa was ordained in San Antonio in 1911 and assigned to El Paso in 1912.

As the pastor in Shafter and Presidio in the early 1900s, Father Costa was one of the circuit-riding priests who rode on horseback to serve several missions along the Rio Grande River.

The idea for a monument to Christ the King was Monsignor Costa's; he saw it as a response to religious persecution in Mexico and the rise of communism in the world.

In October 1933, on the eve of the Feast of Christ the King, he and 100 parishioners, including the church's Boy Scout troop, first climbed the mountain and vowed to build a cross on top of the mountain, to be replaced later with a permanent monument.

The parishioners built the four-mile trail to the top and on Palm Sunday 1934, during the first official pilgrimage to the peak, an iron cross that was built by students at the Smelter Vocational School was planted at the top. In October 1939, the completed statue of Christ the King was unveiled and parishioners from San José del Rio Parish, now named San José de Cristo Rey, made a pilgrimage to dedicate the monument.

The annual pilgrimage to Mt. Cristo Rey, held on the last Sunday of October marking the Feast of Christ the King, continues to be one of the most important professions of faith in the Diocese of El Paso.

Janine Young is the author of the Centennial History of the Diocese of El Paso. She works for the Foundation for the Diocese of El Paso.

Upcoming events

Through April 30: 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, Exhibit on the History of Women Religious in the Diocese of El Paso, El Convento at Loretto Academy.

Thursday: 6:30 p.m., Centennial Lecture, Dr. Mark Cioc-Ortega on the Emergence of the Catholic Church in the Southwest, El Paso Museum of History.

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